Word: splendid
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...enterprise, and in choosing one, Balmain has taken a major gamble. Not only is he brand new to the house, but he isn't even French. He's -- mon Dieu! -- an American. Oscar de la Renta, 60, the elegant, experienced hand who has practically cornered the U.S. market on splendid evening clothes, is the first American ever to take over a French couture business...
...poster of a seductive Josephine Baker for "Prinsesse Tam-Tam" (1953), a French film, is particularly striking as is the terrifying poster of a mounted Klansman for "The Birth of a Nation." The posters, in general, are fascinating and often artistically interesting, especially since the splendid colors are kept alive on the glossy pages...
...sensible aspirations of foreign films; he means to get at the way real people behave, without the hysterics of Hollywood melodrama. So Passion Fish -- a female-rehab movie about May-Alice (Mary McDonnell), an actress made paraplegic in a car crash, and her helpful nurse, Chantelle (the ever splendid Alfre Woodard) -- is notable for what it doesn't show: the collision, the sight of May-Alice's mangled legs, even a clip from , the old movie she watches during the edgy vigil of her recovery. Passion Fish is an antidote to a male-buddy uplifter like Scent of a Woman...
...Iris (Kati Outinen), the stolid young woman on the assembly line, into a keg of emotional dynamite. Kaurismaki's almost-silent movie features a cast of rats -- mother, stepfather, brutal beau -- for whom rat poison may be the best antidote. And for U.S. viewers, Match Factory is a splendid introduction to a world-class (no joke) filmmaker, with a wit as dry as kindling...
...musically we're still in the era of the Dead White Male. Which is why the Bay Area-based WOMEN'S PHILHARMONIC, an all-female ensemble conducted by Jo Ann Falletta, is important in our collective consciousness-raising. On an eponymous new CD (Koch Classics), the group unearths a splendid Overture by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (Felix's sister). But the real pleasures are in the Concertino for Harp and Orchestra by Germaine Tailleferre, perhaps the least known of Les Six, and in two pieces by Lili Boulanger, Nadia's sister. Boulanger's D'un Soir Triste, 12 minutes of heartbreaking...